The "Middle East and Terrorism" Blog was created in order to supply information about the implication of Arab countries and Iran in terrorism all over the world. Most of the articles in the blog are the result of objective scientific research or articles written by senior journalists.

From the Ethics of the Fathers: "He [Rabbi Tarfon] used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it."

?php
>

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Palestinian Statehood: An Ominous Vote at the U.N.

by Joseph Klein

Permanent United Nations Observer of Palestine, Riyad H. Mansour,
heralded the upcoming vote by the United Nations General Assembly on
November 29th to upgrade the Palestinians’ status to an observer “state”
as an “historic event.” He boasted that Palestinian Authority
President Mahmoud Abbas’s maneuver, in which Abbas will personally
appear at the General Assembly and present the resolution for a vote,
was a form of resistance to Israeli occupation that Mansour labeled
“diplomatic resistance.”

Speaking to reporters at United Nations headquarters in New York two
days prior to the vote, Mansour asserted that the General Assembly will
be “legislating” international recognition of the Palestinians’ claim to
statehood, with “borders based on June 4, 1967″ and East Jerusalem as
its capital. He said that every nation, whether voting for or against,
should respect the result because “what we are doing is legal,
honorable” and following the “democratic way,” the “multilateral way.”

Mansour characterized the General Assembly vote on the 65th
anniversary of the original General Assembly partition Resolution 181 in
1947 as completing the UN’s “legislating” of a two-state solution.
Responding to a question as to whether the Palestinians were willing to
admit that it was a mistake on the part of their leaders and neighboring
Arab countries to reject the partition resolution, he dismissed the
premise of the question as futile “score keeping.” The Palestinians like
to cherry-pick the parts they now like in the partition resolution they
once rejected. Most importantly, Resolution 181 referred several times
to the “Arab and Jewish States” resulting from the partition. To this
day, Abbas refuses to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish
state as part of a two-state solution.

With the UN General Assembly’s recognition of Palestinian statehood
in its pocket, Mansour said that the Palestinians then would be ready to
negotiate with the Israelis as one state to another on the terms of
Israel’s end to its “occupation” of the Palestinian “state.” He invited
Israel to join in the negotiations in good faith, but did not rule out
the possibility that the Palestinians would go as a “state” to the
International Criminal Court to seek legal action against Israel, if
Israel did not play ball.

Mansour said that the Palestinian observer state resolution has
nearly sixty co-sponsors, and he expects many more to join in
co-sponsorship once they have had an opportunity to review the
Palestinians’ revised draft. He expects the final vote to be overwhelmingly in favor, and made a special appeal for European support.

France, which voted for the Palestinians’ full membership in UNESCO,
has publicly announced its support of the Palestinians’ upgrade of
status to observer state. Mansour lavished praise on France for its
decision. He also said that Spain appears to be on board. Other
European countries have been more circumspect in announcing their
intentions, but the ambassador from a non-permanent member of the
Security Council estimated that anywhere between 11 and 15 European
countries are likely to vote Yes.

The United Kingdom’s UN ambassador indicated to reporters that his
country had not yet made a decision which way to vote, but was working
with the Palestinians on possible wording changes to their latest
revised draft of the resolution. However, when Mansour was asked
whether the Palestinians would entertain any further changes or
amendments to their text, he flatly said no.

With all of Mansour’s talk about the upcoming international embrace
of the Palestinian state, he tried to put the best face possible on the
underlying split of territorial control between Hamas and Fatah. Mansour
referred several times to Gaza as “the southern portion of our
homeland.” He also claimed that Hamas, like Fatah, supported a
two-state solution. The problem, however, is that neither Fatah, the
Palestinian Authority nor Abbas himself speak for Hamas, which remains
committed to Israel’s destruction.

The pre-requisite to achieving statehood under international law is
government control of all the territory said to be encompassed within
the state. Consequently, I asked Mansour why President Abbas did not
visit Gaza during the recent hostilities between Hamas and Israel as the
Arab League had suggested, and whether Abbas’s decision not to visit
Gaza indicated that the Palestinian Authority has no control as a
practical matter over the Gaza territory.

Mansour conceded what he said was an obvious fact – “division”
between the “two wings of our homeland.” The solution, he said, was
either full implementation of the reconciliation plan worked out in
Cairo and Doha or prompt elections to choose a new leader. Hamas has
stalled on reconciliation, anticipating a ringing electoral victory in
the West Bank and Gaza. Abbas’s “diplomatic resistance” at the United
Nations this week appears to be a Hail Mary pass to stay relevant.Joseph Klein Source: http://frontpagemag.com/2012/joseph-klein/palestinian-statehood-an-ominous-vote-at-the-u-n/Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.